Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

The simple fact of the matter is this: Mike Baird has a plan to privatise hospitals in New South Wales, and Labor's Luke Foley has a plan to stop him. We do not have to wait until 2019, the next New South Wales election, to stop this terrible plan to privatise New South Wales hospitals, because this Saturday in three electorates in New South Wales—Orange, Wollongong and Bankstown—the people of New South Wales have the opportunity to cast their judgement on the Baird government's plans to privatise hospitals in New South Wales.

It has only been months since the last Liberal leader went to an election promising to do tremendous damage to health care in this country. While the Prime Minister is still smarting from the fact that Medicare was at the centre of the federal election campaign, it is quite clear that health care is going to be at the centre of the next state election campaign. At a rally in Shellharbour on the weekend, we saw thousands of people come out because they are still smarting from the fact that, at the last state election, the state member, Gareth Ward, and the Premier, Mike Baird, promised to invest $250 million into the Shellharbour Hospital. What they did not say was that it was a plan to privatise hospitals. It is a very clear message: no private hospitals.

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